16 



REGULATIONS REGARDING THE SALE OF TIMBER LIMITS TO 

 LUMBERMEN. 



Under the present system timber limits are put up at auction 

 at an upset price and sold to the highest bidder. The buyer by 

 paying an annual fee thereafter and dues on the timber or logs 

 actually cut, can retain the limit in Ontario so long as he complies 

 with the regulations, and in Quebec until J 889. He can in Ontario 

 cut any size of tree, but in Quebec is limited to those over twelve 

 inches. In both provinces the license gives permission to cut 

 trees of any and all kinds without restriction, except on lots which 

 the Government may subsequently sell, when the license is restricted 

 in Ontario to pine. Even if in Quebec a lumberman cuts timber 

 under the twelve inches, there are no fines imposed beyond the 

 possible forfeiture of the license if the Government choose to 

 enforce it. Now the grave objections of this system are that it 

 subjects the public lands to unrestricted waste for just such length 

 of time as the lumberman finds it profitable, without any regard to 

 the future ; and, on the other hand, it places the Government in 

 the position of an owner desirous of making the largest possible 

 immediate return, regardless of the impoverishment of his posses- 

 sions in the near future. 



The principle of leasing the timber limits for an indefinite 

 period of time, and of allowing trees of any size or kind to be cut, 

 is hardly defensible. There should be a limit in girth beyond 

 which alone a tree should be considered merchantable. The 

 forests should also at intervals be allowed a long rest to admit of 

 the young trees growing up, and the Government as the lessee, 

 and not the lumberman with his self-interest always at stake, should 

 be the judge of what that rest should be and when it is required. 

 It may be said that timber limits under the present system afford 

 a means of financing, and further that if mill-owners erect expensive 

 saw-mills they should have some certainty that they will always 

 have a source from which in coming years to obtain their logs. It 

 is, however, on the one hand a question whether timber limits 

 with the great uncertainty attached to them about the kind and 



